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I liked the previous one a lot better, but the guy I was responding to seemed to have ignored it. I'll repeat it here, I guess:

If I ask you to build a speaker that will let me hear your voice from 100 meters away, that's something we know how to do.

If I then ask for a speaker that will let me hear your voice from 10 miles away... well, that's an engineering challenge, but fundamentally all it would take is a really really big speaker and some good waveguide design.

If I ask for a speaker that will let me hear you on the Moon... it can't be done. Sound physically does not work that way. No amount of can-do attitude can make it happen.

Some limitations are physics. Some are engineering. Sometimes we're confused about which is which. But there *are* some fundamental physics limitations that cannot be overcome simply by building better machines.

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Now I don't even have a high school diploma, but you gotta realize I know a thing or two about transducers. You don't NEED a transducer to generate sound. You need a transducer to ...uh, transduce from electrical energy to particle motion.

Of course, the frequency of sounds that would be reproducible on the moon would be very limited, but if a medium can transmit energy for that wavelength, sound will and can occur.

I'd rather the human race became extinct because we tried exploring the universe and found something we couldn't handle that have it become extinct because we confined ourselves to one planet out of cowardice, shortsightedness and lack of ambition.

The human race needs to get off its *** and explore. I can see smoke from my neighbors chimney, it's time to move on.

I'd rather the human race became extinct because we tried exploring the universe and found something we couldn't handle that have it become extinct because we confined ourselves to one planet out of cowardice, shortsightedness and lack of ambition.

The human race needs to get off its *** and explore. I can see smoke from my neighbors chimney, it's time to move on.

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I totally agree. With the scared mentality we would be still stuck in the caves, fearful of the lions, tigers, and bears that might be waiting for us. And saying, how about we solve the problems in our cave tribe first, before we go explore the open lands.

I liked the previous one a lot better, but the guy I was responding to seemed to have ignored it. I'll repeat it here, I guess:

If I ask you to build a speaker that will let me hear your voice from 100 meters away, that's something we know how to do.

If I then ask for a speaker that will let me hear your voice from 10 miles away... well, that's an engineering challenge, but fundamentally all it would take is a really really big speaker and some good waveguide design.

If I ask for a speaker that will let me hear you on the Moon... it can't be done. Sound physically does not work that way. No amount of can-do attitude can make it happen.

Some limitations are physics. Some are engineering. Sometimes we're confused about which is which. But there *are* some fundamental physics limitations that cannot be overcome simply by building better machines.

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I didn't ignore it! I thought it was an excellent example or challenge if you will.

A universe full of matter can be open (expand forever), closed (expand, stop, collapse (Big Crunch)), or flat (expand, slow down, but never quite stop).

The evidence now supports that our universe is a flat universe. Lawrence Krass' original 2009 "A Universe from Nothing" lecture has been pulled down from YouTube, but he followed it up with a book, and here is a later lecture on it (not sure why the player is not embedding right now).

Now I don't even have a high school diploma, but you gotta realize I know a thing or two about transducers. You don't NEED a transducer to generate sound. You need a transducer to ...uh, transduce from electrical energy to particle motion.

Of course, the frequency of sounds that would be reproducible on the moon would be very limited, but if a medium can transmit energy for that wavelength, sound will and can occur.

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I need to trandsduece a sound... I don't know about the waves, or the length, but I'm pretty sure they taper off at one end. There are trillions of particles involved, and they overwhelmingly constitute the nature of this post.

In my opinion there has to be other life. I think about this all the time...everytime I worry about money or my job or the future...in the end it's all sort of insignificant in the face of it all..but at the same time, it's all we've got, so we might as well do something.

We float around on a speck of sand traveling thousands of miles per hour around a sun, which is just one of billions of other stars in the universe. I think its something like the closest star to us is 16.8 Billion light years away from us. That means we'd have to travel for 16.8 billion years, AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, to get there. I'm not a scientist, or a space travel expert, but I'm pretty sure its near impossible, since its damn difficult to get anything with any amount of mass to travel that fast. Then there is the whole issue of a Human being's life span...

We are a part of just one galaxy that is a part of millions of others which make up the universe..which is probably apart of some other crazy ****. If we can study certain "laws" that seem to act the same way in our galaxy, such as what carbon based life forms need to survive, i.e. food, water, shelter, etc, then its very possible that other life forms out there are also carbon based, and may even look something like us.

Who knows? That's the beauty of it all. I may be an idealist, but if human beings started worrying less about money and who believes in what god and which country has the most stuff, and started worrying about humanity as a whole, pooling the worlds resources, maybe one day we could find out whats out there.

But we're irrational and violent. Oh well, gives me a reason to carry a gun.

In my opinion there has to be other life. I think about this all the time...everytime I worry about money or my job or the future...in the end it's all sort of insignificant in the face of it all..but at the same time, it's all we've got, so we might as well do something.

We float around on a speck of sand traveling thousands of miles per hour around a sun, which is just one of billions of other stars in the universe. I think its something like the closest star to us is 16.8 Billion light years away from us. That means we'd have to travel for 16.8 billion years, AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, to get there. I'm not a scientist, or a space travel expert, but I'm pretty sure its near impossible, since its damn difficult to get anything with any amount of mass to travel that fast. Then there is the whole issue of a Human being's life span...

We are a part of just one galaxy that is a part of millions of others which make up the universe..which is probably apart of some other crazy ****. If we can study certain "laws" that seem to act the same way in our galaxy, such as what carbon based life forms need to survive, i.e. food, water, shelter, etc, then its very possible that other life forms out there are also carbon based, and may even look something like us.

Who knows? That's the beauty of it all. I may be an idealist, but if human beings started worrying less about money and who believes in what god and which country has the most stuff, and started worrying about humanity as a whole, pooling the worlds resources, maybe one day we could find out whats out there.

But we're irrational and violent. Oh well, gives me a reason to carry a gun.

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There is up to a septillion stars, billion is a drop in the bucket.

The closest star is 4.3 light years away (four point three)

BTW, it is worrying about money and who has the most stuff that has created societies that can start to understand this stuff. I will never understand how people (Americians in particular) dont get this.

BTW, it is worrying about money and who has the most stuff that has created societies that can start to understand this stuff. I will never understand how people (Americians in particular) dont get this.

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Right, as I said, I'm not a scientist or an expert on the Universe, I'm a history geek instead. Still, 4.3 light years away is ridiculously far away, and I'm not sure if it's possible we even are able to travel that far in our lifetime.

And I understand it would take millions in research and development, as well as many years, to reach a stage where we are capable of that level of "Space Exploration".

But when you consider the challenges our planet faces: failing global economy, dwindling finite resources, damage to our planet caused by pollution and economic development, I sometimes wish we would worry more about "humanity" rather than just America, or Britain, or Botswana, or whatever.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is if we were more in this together, we may reach that stage much faster. Stephen Hawking himself said we as a species will probably have to expand outward into space in the next 1,000 years or we're pretty much screwed.

Right, as I said, I'm not a scientist or an expert on the Universe, I'm a history geek instead. Still, 4.3 light years away is ridiculously far away, and I'm not sure if it's possible we even are able to travel that far in our lifetime.

And I understand it would take millions in research and development, as well as many years, to reach a stage where we are capable of that level of "Space Exploration".

But when you consider the challenges our planet faces: failing global economy, dwindling finite resources, damage to our planet caused by pollution and economic development, I sometimes wish we would worry more about "humanity" rather than just America, or Britain, or Botswana, or whatever.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is if we were more in this together, we may reach that stage much faster. Stephen Hawking himself said we as a species will probably have to expand outward into space in the next 1,000 years or we're pretty much screwed.

But again, I'm a bit of an Idealist I suppose.

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I think you are flat out wrong.

What holds us back is people who dont add much draining the resources (be they real or intellectual) of those who do great things.

Idealism destroys/keeps from every happenening, human advances while greed marches us forward.

In other words, if I could capture individual photons coming towards me, with some kind of advanced imaging system, would I detect a spin on each one, like a bullet fired from a rifled barrel, or a well-thrown pass with a football?

Would this observed spin be consistently clockwise from my point of view, or counter clockwise?

Do individual light particles&#8212;i.e., photons&#8212;have a spin to them?

In other words, if I could capture individual photons coming towards me, with some kind of advanced imaging system, would I detect a spin on each one, like a bullet fired from a rifled barrel, or a well-thrown pass with a football?

Would this observed spin be consistently clockwise from my point of view, or counter clockwise?

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